I am an Ottawa based mixed media artist. I became an artist in midlife after retiring from a career as a pharmacist. I could no longer ignore the creative muse. I began by taking art courses through the city of Ottawa, and in 2017 I signed up for the Creative Visionary Program, a three month intensive program taught by American artist Nicholas Wilton. I repeated in 2018, 2020 and 2021. The program gave me the tools I needed to pursue a daily art practice and to find my voice as an artist. I have also taken workshops with artists Robert Burridge, Holly Dean, Bibby Gignilliat and Judy Woods and Mark Eanes.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Catherine paints with a sense of playfulness, layering acrylic and collage elements, scraping and marking through the paint, allowing a rich history to develop, where happy accidents and hints of narrative are revealed. She gives free reign to her imagination, allowing curiosity to guide the creative process, having faith that the visual vocabulary she has developed through her love of reading, travel, imaginary worlds, architecture, sacred spaces, nature walks and childhood memories, will flow through her into the painting.
She follows what feels good, layer after layer, and trusts that the painting will tell her when it is finished. There has to be a feeling of magic before she knows the painting is complete.

Catherine’s inner world reveals itself through her art, with a sense of story that the viewer is invited Each painting feels like a chapter born from the storybook of her imagination, yet at the same time, a metaphor for the world we live in as we each experience it.